Luc placed his hand over hers, where it rested on the handle of the carafe. She fought not to flinch from his touch, from the spark of physical recognition that relentlessly spiralled through her every time he was near.
“You remembered that without trying. Don’t over analyse it. Just let it come.”
“How can I do that when I don’t know the difference between remembering and not?” Her voice shook slightly.
“We’ll find a balance. Don’t worry. Who knows what might happen today.”
He let go of her hand, took a swig of his coffee, then rose from the table.
“Where are we going?”
“I thought we’d take a trip around parts of the estate today. Play hooky.” He gave her a smile. “Are you up for it?”
A sensation, not unlike fear, snaked along her spine. She couldn’t help but feel he had a hidden agenda to his suggestion.
“Just the two of us?” she asked.
“Does that bother you?”
“No, it doesn’t bother me. Should it?” She forced her lips into a smile.
Luc’s eyes narrowed as her question hung on the air. “If you’d rather stay here at the lodge today, that’s okay.”
“No, no! Going out today would be fabulous.”
“Well, if it assuages your fears any, Manu will be driving us.” He rose to his feet and snatched his cane up from by the table.
“I could drive,” Belinda offered.
Luc halted midstride. His face paled measurably and he gave her a searching look that made her heart stutter in her chest. What had she said wrong?
“Or not.” She attempted to lighten the air that had suddenly frozen between them with glacial coolness.
“I think not. Not yet, anyway.” Luc appeared to have recovered his equilibrium and his skin recovered its usual hue. “How soon can you be ready?”
Belinda flicked a glance at the clock above the kitchen stove. “Give me ten minutes, then I’m all yours.”
“All mine?” Luc’s voice deepened and Belinda was suddenly swept with an uneasy sense of déjà vu.
She put out a hand and grasped a chair back to steady herself. Tiny black dots danced before her eyes. She forced herself to breathe, drawing air into her lungs and expelling it again with careful deliberation. She felt Luc’s hand at her back—a reassurance that lent her much-needed strength.
“You okay?” His breath stirred the hair at her nape.
“Yeah,” she said on shaky breath. “I’ll be fine. I’ll go and get ready.”
“Make sure you grab a jacket in case it gets cool later, and wear comfortable walking shoes, okay?”
“We’ll be out all day?”
“If you’re up for it.”
She let go of the chair and stepped out of his reach. “I’m up for it.”
“I’ll meet you out front.”
By the time she’d splashed her face and reapplied her makeup, she was heading closer to fifteen minutes than the ten she’d promised, but as she joined Luc at the front door she had at least regained most of her equilibrium. It niggled at her that he hadn’t been keen for her to drive. She’d held her licence since her late teens and had always been a good driver, but he’d looked sick to his stomach at the prospect.
Ah, well, she sighed, at least this way she’d get to enjoy the countryside a bit more than if she had to concentrate on the roads.
She was surprised when Luc sat in the back beside her as they headed off, and said as much. Luc responded by linking his fingers through hers and answering, “I’ve been forced to be apart from you for too long already. Why wouldn’t I want to be by my wife’s side?”
There was an intensity to his words that both soothed and unnerved her. She gave herself an internal shake. What was wrong with her? Everything she felt at the moment was a contradiction to what she’d felt only a moment ago. And underlying it all was the insidious awareness that something wasn’t right, that somehow she was living the wrong life. Maybe she should have let Luc call the doctor yesterday. This weird sense of displacement, the inherent sense of wrongness couldn’t be normal.
Luc dragged her attention to the land that spread out before them and described the extent of the estate’s farming and forestry operations, as they followed the road down the side of the hill, going deeper into the valley with every kilometre. As far as she could see in any direction the land was entailed in Tautara Estate. She started to get a new appreciation of how vast her husband’s business interest here was and how many staff he employed.
“And Luc is being modest,” Manu interrupted as he negotiated a hairpin bend in the road. “We offer some of the best fishing and hunting grounds in the whole of New Zealand, and for the adventurous they can go rafting, too.”
“Sounds like you offer it all,” Belinda commented.
“Yeah, well, we aim to please, don’t we, mate?” Manu’s gaze flicked to the rearview mirror, his eyes crinkled with the smile that wreathed his face.
“We do at that,” Luc answered enigmatically, and gave Belinda’s hand a gentle squeeze.
After just over an hour they reached a clearing and Manu pulled the four-wheel-drive vehicle in and parked, leaping down to open Belinda’s door for her before she could alight.
“Here you are. I’ll head on as we discussed this morning, okay?”
“Thanks, Manu,” Luc answered.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” There was a note of concern in the other man’s voice that alerted Belinda he was not entirely happy to be leaving them here.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. Besides, I’ve got this and I’ve got the two-way.” Luc lifted his cane slightly with one hand and patted the small radio clipped to his belt with the other. “I’ll call you if I need you.”
“Make sure he does.” Manu turned to Belinda, the serious light in his eyes telling her unreservedly that he wasn’t kidding. “I mean it, if he looks like he’s in any pain at all, call me.”
“Stop fussing, Manu.” Irritation laced Luc’s words with acerbity.
“You call being sensible, fussing? Her with her blackout yesterday, you with your hip, both of you just out of hospital and now me leaving you both in the wilderness. I need my head read is what.”
Though he tried to inject some humour into his voice Belinda could see he was genuinely worried. She put her hand out to him, gripping his forearm and meeting his worried gaze full-on.
“I will look after him, don’t worry. And if I feel like I can’t manage, either him or myself, Luc will call you. Okay?”
“S’pose it’ll have to be. Right, then, catch you later.”
Still muttering, Manu climbed back into the four-by-four and wheeled back out onto the private road, heading off in the same direction they’d been travelling.
“He has a point.” Belinda turned to Luc. “We pretty much are the walking wounded.”
“Are you worried?” He gave her a searching look.
“No, not at all. In fact it’s great to be out in the fresh air. Away from walls.”